Meeting Minutes

Executive Board Attendees:
Co-President: Valina, Co-President: Carina, Recording Secretary: Maria, Co- Treasurer: Claudia, VP of Afterschool: Sasha Nina (co-president)- Welcome
Rolon- Principal Review

• ●  “We had a parent meeting yesterday, our coffee and conversation meeting, which was very well attended. It was great to see a nice turnout of parents there, and some of them are even here tonight. Again, a lot of things were brought up. But one of the most important ones to take away was the reimplementation of the open house thing that we did a couple of years ago. So that's going to happen. It's going to be in the works but basically, the way it's going to work is, parents will be invited to walk the building in the morning. Pop into whatever classrooms they wish. The instruction is going to be ongoing. You can see the teachers in action. You can see the kids in action and afterwards we'll gather down here in the cafeteria for coffee and more conversation and questions, and just be on the lookout for communication to be sent out.”

• ●  “Our school construction in the schoolyard is behind schedule. It doesn't really impact on us too much, because all the work happens at nights and weekends. The only real issue to us is that piece of the schoolyard that's closed off, it is a little bit of a hazard also, but no one's been hurt. We want to keep it that way, but they also have posted a 24-hour guard there.”

• ●  “Our Halloween parade next week, that's going to happen on the 31st I believe, 12:45, Erica. So, the kids are going to come into the schoolyard. They're going to parade, do a lap around, grab their candy, and then we send them right back inside.”

• ●  “I wanted to bring up something that happened with our library funding there was some confusion around that. If you remember a few weeks ago, I posted a picture with the borough President. Now, yeah, I'm sorry, a city councilman, Robert Holden, I thanked him for being instrumental in giving us this funding. So just for context, we had been speaking to the council about doing a library renovation for a few months before he'd been to the school a few times and that newsletter made its way into the hands of the borough president's office. With a complaint about me that I was thanking the wrong person. I've been in contact with the borough president's office and with the city councilman's office and as it turns out, we got 2 awards of $900,000 from each of them. So, our funding is upwards of 1.8 million dollars for this library renovation.”

• ●  Parent: “You anticipated 9 hundred thousand, now 1.8 million, when can we expect the renovation to be completed and can ‘t it be used towards something else besides the library?”

• ●  Rolon: “It was granted to us specifically for that project.”

  Valina - Minutes Review of September 23rd meeting

  • ●  “We plan to share the minutes. Online, or do Dojo, we'll figure out apologies for not having made that decision earlier.

  • ●  Here in person, we do have quorum for those who are hybrid. We do have Karina Suarez, and we have Maria Flores and me,

    Valina from the executive board, and we have parents as well. We do have a quorum.”

  • ●  Any questions?

  • ●  Motion to approve minutes

  o 9 approved, 0 not approved, 0 abstained

  Claudia (treasurer)- PTA financial report

  • ●  June performance review

  • ●  August performance budget

  • ●  September performance

  • ●  Valina: “If Tracy could verify. If that's where the income for the Book Fair was put in, or where it was, cause if we did

    it a second year. Now I think that should be a line item because it's not like it. It was at the last minute. Add on, last year's fundraiser wasn't like scheduled like this one was scheduled from June. I think it should be added as a line item.”

  • ●  Ms. Robinson: “I just have a question about the 5th grade expenses because it says, 5th grade dance, DJ, decorations, photo booth, food refreshments, etc. and there's $1,710 and 95 cents. Was that paid out by the PTA because last year we collected dues from each child. It was like $90 which paid for all those things.

  • ●  Sasha: “Decorations, senior breakfast was supported by PTA”

  • ●  Claudia: “I think if we look at it, we could look at the itemized spreadsheet. And if anything, you know we could but

    that was from the Pta. But what we could do. Look at the itemized item, and then I could do a revised one. If you guys must do it specifically, because I think this is just like a default. That category that they had under this 5th grade of dance could have been. So, we could, you know, if you need more detail, we could put it in there and change it up so you could see a more detail exactly what was spent”

  • ●  Tracy “motion for June budget review” 7 approved, 0 not approved, 0 abstained

  • ●  Valina “motion for motion for August budget review” 6 approved, 0 not approved, 0 abstain

  • ●  Valina “motion for motion for September budget review” 8 approved, 0 not approved, 0 abstained

    Valina- President’s Report SLT

    o Improving attendance, any ideas to support parents
    o “That's what we're there for is to provide that as the parent support. You know what I mean. So that's why it's important

    for who's in the SLT to show up”
    o Implementing K through 13, 20-minute center-based reading

    • ▪  help prevent reading challenges

    • ▪  change in math curriculum (testing elementary school)

    o P.S.139 debate team for 4th and 5th grade -communication building, health disagreements
    o Safety- coaching for kids to avoid fractures during lunch, after-school events need to stay in designated areas and every

    child needs to be accompanied by an adult.
    o Bookfair fundraising total sales: $7,626.93, earned $1758.36 for school.

    Ms. Robinson- Teacher’s update
    o Most classes are done with there I ready testing, all classes will be finished by next week.
    o That the information can be shared at parent-teacher conferences on November 7th, also it is a student non-attendance

    day.
    o School wellness has been working and planning our 1st school-wide activity to show our colors.
    o The classes are also making scarecrows to decorate the hallways where they're going to trace several children in the

    classroom and then decorate them.
    o I can speak for all the enrichment classes that have completed our 1st unit in New York City's The city has 3 more

    climate action days throughout the school year, which we will also be doing units on
    o Valina- Bylaws need to be updated
    o PTA meetings will be held on the 3rd Thursday of the month at 6:00PM.
    o “Do we want to do a survey? Because whoever voted with the it just says it: if I can make that information, but of

    course, majority. So, I'm all about whatever is good for most people”
    o Hokim: sub-committee of parents and teachers (2&2) to craft survey
    o Nina- “move forward with survey committee reports, 5th grade committee work in progress. Suggest a committee in

    DEI
    o New business- Title 1 Funding o meeting time remains the same

    Kather Zapata (The director of education)- “So I am the Director of Education to Queensborough, President Donovan Richards. And I'm also a nearby resident. Ps. 139. So, it's so great to hear all the amazing things that the school is doing. I'm very excited about that debate team as well as a second English language learner. I know that'd be very important for our families, and I'm very excited to see, you know, the outcome and possibilities that our students have with that opportunity. So, as director of education, I support the borough President and advise him with anything education related as well as supporting our 400 schools. Our borough president does provide capital grants, which is called a resolution, and he does yearly applications and supports principals in applying for different resolution projects when it comes to capital improvements in their building. So, our director's budget couldn't make it tonight. But we do want to acknowledge that Ps. 1, 39 did receive 900,000 from us because of the parent advocacy and the community advocacy we've heard around the last year or so. So. Kudos to you all now there is a bit of oversight when working with your school leadership to clarify more information on. You know how our funding will work, and whether it will be used for the project that we originally allocated for or invested in the infrastructure of your school. We know that there's some other funding that came about. But so, we're working on the nuance of that, and we'll have more to come in the coming weeks or so. But if you have any further questions for me, I will leave my email. I'll stick around for a couple of minutes as well, but very excited to be here to meet all of you, and please always feel free to reach out. We're more than happy to attend one of your events, to have the students of Ps. 139 come, visit Borough Hall and to talk if there's any nuance issues that respective parents have and if our office could be of support. We have so many amazing opportunities, not only for parents, but for community members. We have a constituent services department, and I'm more than happy to refer you all. I will leave my email here in the chat box. But thank you all so much for having me.

    o Valina- Well, it came up when the principal did his report about the 2 $900,000 grants that we received. If there is anything we can move money around to use for something else. And initially the answer he did say, no, but I know that I imagine it has to be with approval from whoever applies for the grant.

    o Katherine Zapata: “Well, I want to be clear. This is a bit different, right? This is money from the borough President that he allocated respectively for your school. So the project we procured that we originally procured. You know it could be used for that, but it would have to be another capital investment. But that's a larger conversation that we have to have with your school leadership. And would ultimately be you know, a deciding factor internally, and then my director Budget can speak more of if we want to have him talk more about that in the future. But that's more of an internal conversation, for sure.”

    o Sasha- “Also the Parent Advisory Board, which is something that you post every month and then the Community Board 6. But we do invite parents to join that parent Advisory Board. We work closely with the borough president's

    office. Community Board 6. They're on there, but it's great It’s a great avenue. Once we meet other like-minded parents that are truly, truly doing the advocacy that they need for their schools and have always been a great support.”

    o Katherine Zapata: “Thank you all. I see Carla has a question. What are the projects that it's being used for? So, the current project is for a media center in a library.”

    Sasha- “Yes, so title one funding is for parents. We do receive money from the Federal Government for title one there is a meeting that does need to take place. These are parents, and families that do fall in those categories of doubled up or low income. We do get Federal dollars. So, there is going to be a meeting that's going to take place. That demonstrates how those Federal dollars will be allocated for the families in need. It's an additional resource for them to understand what's available to them, because I think you know, coming to this country and a lot of parents don't know where to go, what I need, what I'm entitled to. What are the resources? So, title one funding we've been on the list for the past 2 years. And so, what we're trying to finally get is Title 1 committee. It's apart from the PTA and the committee is made up of 2 parents who can hold the committee. The meetings are quarterly, and what we do is ensure that parent engagement for families to get connected with those resources and the avenues to be able to do that. So, we are waiting for when that meeting is going to take place. I don't have a date, but I know that he said that he was working with Chancellors. We'll get a 10-day notice. You do not need to be Title 1 I want to attend the meeting. I encourage all parents to still attend, because you can be able to advocate for a family, or that's in your child's class. This is available to you, reach out to so and so and so. This is just, you know, more knowledge, more power.

    Valina-

    • ●  Picture Day 11/19. Volunteers needed

    • ●  All additional items can be shared on all platforms

    • ●  Meeting Adjourned

      Meeting adjourned 7:35pm